Year of Silence

The Mirror persist in their "at least one unfounded transfer story a day" policy.  Today it's outward bound as they tell us Zenit want Berba.

Other transfer speculation comes from The Daily Mail, in the form of more speculation on Lucas Moura.  They have the pretty meaningless story of how we have to decide whether to bid more money.

The only other story comes from some comment Rio Ferdinand made on tour. Most of the papers lead on his comments on Twitter, linking it to Ashley Cole despite Rio not saying a word on it.  And all the papers claim he's "defending" Twitter use, combining Rio's anodyne comments with the fact that the FA have asked him about his Ashley Cole (re)tweet, making one slightly juicier story out of two.  The Sun going the furthest with the headline "I Will Not Be Gagged". Anyway, some of his comments, from the Telegraph:

“When I first started doing it, they [team-mates] were all caning me, saying, ‘What are you doing that for?,’ but then they see there is some benefit in doing it.

“I would love to have been able to be close to people like John Barnes, Gazza and Paul Ince when I was a kid.

“I would love to have just got their autographs, let alone be able to speak to them publicly, so Twitter is something that lets fans get a bit closer to you, letting them see you do everyday things, just giving them a glimpse of what you get up to.

“A lot of fans presume you’re at the opening of a bar, nightclub or a premiere every other night. They don’t realise you’ve got a normal life in most ways.”

He also comments on being in the last 12 months of his contract:

“Nothing has happened yet and I don’t envisage it happening until at least January because that’s the way the manager works.

“I am not a special case because I am Rio Ferdinand. Giggsy, Nev and Scholesy have all been the same, when the manager pulls them aside at the back end of the season and says I would like you to continue or clear your locker.

“Hopefully, the manager pulls me aside and says, ‘I want you to continue playing here’, because I love playing for this club and love being here.”

He also has some words on blowing the eight point lead to lose the Premier League title:

“You think to yourself that the young players will learn from last season.

“We would rather have won the league but it’s a valuable experience that I’m sure they’ll learn from because that feeling in the dressing-room after the Sunderland game isn’t one you want too many more times in your career, if any.”

And that's it today.
Late addition: The Guardian website reporting new comments from Moura's agent saying they're still negotiating with us.